Advanced countries, including the USA and the EU, announced that the consumption of gasoline will be reduced by 20-30% and the use of biofuels will be increased during the year 2017-2030. At present, the USA and Brazil produce bioethanol from their abundant biomass such as maize or sugar cane and commercially use it as an alternative fuel for transportation in considerable amounts.
According to the report of the Korea Bio-Energy Association, it was estimated that the amount of waste cooking oil used in the production of biodiesel reached 120,000 tons in the year 2012 and 153,000 tons in the year 2013. Thus, nonfood biomass such as lignocellulosic biomass is emerging as a next-generation raw material for energy production, and the attention on the production of biofuels from lignocellulosic biomass has never been higher. Lignocellulosic biomass has advantages in the size of annual production, about 10-50 billion tons per year, and its renewability, but has disadvantages in the slow growth rate and the difficult degradation of cellulose bound to lignin. To overcome such disadvantages, the development of highly efficient cellulase is essential. Furthermore, it is expected that the commercial market size of cellulase will be expanded rapidly within 5-10 years. According to the Korean Journal of Mycology in 2012, cellulase used in the production of bioenergy was 11% of the global industrial enzyme market, and thus the value of cellulases is newly emerging and expanding.
Cellulases are produced on a pilot or commercial scale by use of strains such as Trichoderma reesei, Penicillium funiculosum, and Aspergillus niger. In addition, cellulases are also produced from bacteria, including Acidothermus cellulolyticus, Micromonospora bispora, Bacillus sp., Cytophaga sp., Streptomyces stercorarium, Clostridium thermocellum, and Ruminococcus albus. 
Trichoderma reesei is a well-known cellulase producer, and its cellulases have advantages in high stability under enzymatic saccharification conditions and high resistance against chemical inhibitors, but have a disadvantage of low β-glucosidase (BGL) activity (Brian et al, Biotechno. Bioeng. 102:1033-1044, 2009).
The present inventors have made extensive efforts to develop a novel strain having the ability to produce highly active cellulase. As a result, the present inventors have isolated novel Acanthophysium sp. KMF001 strain, and have found that the isolated strain produces cellulases having activities higher than those of conventional strains, thereby completing the present invention.